Covert Ops
by Abelina
Summary: It's good to be back with Team Family, and Beth and Daryl know it's only a matter of time before their secret is out. They'd really like Maggie to get the hint though. (Yet another alternate timeline in which Beth and Daryl never got separated, only to reunite with Team Family at an undetermined future point where canon may or may not apply).


**Note: **Maggie is probably somewhat OOC here, as I'm mainly using her as a plot device (but the plot's kind of thin). I'm not really bashing her but it could be read that way. Mostly it's meant to be a little funny.

* * *

**Covert Ops**

From the moment Beth and Daryl find the group, Maggie barely allows her a single minute to herself. Beth gets it, she does. She saw the signs with only Glenn's name on them and she sees the flicker in Maggie's eyes sometimes, a little flash that Maggie tries to hide behind the happiness and the big sister fussiness that's now reached epic proportions. Maggie feels guilty. Beth has been told an awful lot about how good a person she is, and maybe that's true sometimes. But Beth's also not above letting Maggie suffer the guilt for a while, even if Beth is so deeply, painfully grateful to have found her again.

She wouldn't really mind Maggie's attention all that much if it wasn't _constant. _It's stifling, especially since she can't even take a piss in the woods without Maggie knowing about it. Reminding her sister that she's not a baby, that she managed not to die during the months she spent without Maggie constantly looking over her shoulders usually buys her a few minutes of breathing room—and it's those minutes where the not so good side of Beth secretly enjoys tugging on Maggie's guilty conscience—but all too soon her Maggie-shaped shadow is back and all Beth can do is meet Daryl's eyes and share his frustrations.

Honestly, how Maggie hasn't noticed is beyond Beth. They're being _so_ obvious about it, but Maggie's got her baby-Beth blinders on and doesn't see. Nobody sees yet, a week in, but with the way Maggie won't leave Beth alone, one would think she might have figured it out by now. But no, Maggie's too busy _looking _for Beth first thing in the morning to notice whose arms she's lying in, too busy making sure Beth is warm enough to notice whose shirt she's put on over hers, too busy checking that Beth isn't alone when they're walking through the woods to notice who she's walking beside. She catches them in all sorts of telling little moments and misses every one of them.

Nights are when Beth can breathe just a little, but they're hardly free. The weather is growing steadily colder and they're all sleeping under the same tarp-tent in a giant cluster of bodies, and though her body and Daryl's body lie next to each other, that's about all they can do. The one time they tried sneaking away together when everyone was asleep, Maggie _woke the fuck up_ and followed to make sure _Beth was okay_ and _oh, hey, Daryl, I thought Carol was on watch..?_ There's a good amount of kissing to be done under the cover of darkness, though, even in the shared tent, and it could definitely progress to more if Daryl didn't have Carl's foot poking into his back and Maggie hadn't moved in her sleep to _cuddle_ Beth every. Single. Night. And it's been _nine days_ since she's had any part of Daryl inside her, aside from his tongue in her mouth—and even that's difficult with Maggie literally breathing down her neck—and she's about ready to _scream_.

xxx

She's still thinking about all the things she wants to do to Daryl—and wants him to do to her, them to do _together_—when they find the abandoned military truck, the kind with a covered box at the back into which they all pile, cheeks reddened from the biting wind that's crept upon them since daybreak. The big guy, Abraham, insists on driving with a manic sort of intensity and Beth's just fine with that. At least _somebody _is getting some sort of satisfaction.

It's not much warmer in the back of the truck, but it's out of the wind at least, and for once Maggie isn't glued to Beth's side. Glenn's got her wrapped up with him in a blanket across the box, in the back corner opposite from where she and Daryl are doing the exact same thing. How Maggie still hasn't figured them out yet is laughable, since Beth is sitting in Daryl's lap and the two of them fit like puzzle pieces together beneath their blanket. His nose is nuzzled into her hair, and Glenn's looking. Rick is looking. _Everyone_ is looking, and Beth feels her heart racing with both nerves and excitement at the understanding dawning on their faces. But not Maggie. No, all Maggie does is ask if Beth's warm enough—

"Yeah, Daryl's kind of a furnace, actually."

—and tells her to be careful not to fall over and hurt herself when the truck starts moving.

"Yes, Mrs. Rhee," Beth says, in a far different tone of voice than the one she might use on Mr. Dixon, whose fingers press into her hip anyway at the reference.

"Bethy," says Maggie, still looking on with cluelessness while Glenn mutters oh-my-god behind her. "Humour me. I have a lot of big sistering to catch up on."

Glenn's actually laughing now, and behind her Beth feels the rumble of laughter in Daryl's chest, too. "All right, Maggie," she says, snuggling a little deeper into Daryl's arms.

The truck rolls on and around them, people are beginning to fall asleep, lulled by the motion, out of the wind and warming beneath their blankets. Beth pretends to sleep, too, if only to escape Maggie's constant chatter for a little while. It's nice to lay her head on Daryl's chest, and though they were never hiding to begin with, having the truth of their relationship out in the open—Maggie aside—brings with it a certain sense of freedom. Daryl's playing possum, too, his head leaning on hers, but he's every bit as awake as she is. It's those nine days of enforced celibacy catching up to both of them, because he's hard as rock against her hip and there's a wet ache between her legs and a heat simmering in her belly that's only getting worse.

Across the truck, Maggie and Glenn are talking and having two entirely different conversations. Beth can hear Glenn steering her sister toward the thing literally staring her in the face, but Maggie remains so steadfastly oblivious, going on and on about Beth and ignoring absolutely everything to do with Daryl, that it's like listening to a sitcom.

"I'm just so glad she's back," Maggie says for what might be the seven thousandth time. "What? Yes, it's nice of Daryl to look after her. He doesn't have to now, though, since she has me…"

Beth should be annoyed, since she doesn't need looking after, but Maggie's blindness is bordering on hilarious. The flutter of Daryl's breath on her cheek holds a note of laughter to it, too, and Beth tips her face up just a little, so her lips graze against the pulse point in his neck. She breathes deep, inhaling the scent of leather and dirt and Daryl that she loves so much, and beneath her Daryl tilts his pelvis, presses his cock into her just enough to remind her how desperately he wants her right now. It makes her whimper, the little noise escaping without her having any control of it.

Naturally, Maggie notices, and Beth's not going to open her eyes to look but she hears her sister's little hum of concern, can feel the extra scrutiny of Maggie's gaze. So of course it's then that she also feels Daryl's fingers slide from her hip to her belly, dragging over her skin and leaving tingling trails behind.

"I think she's okay," Maggie says.

Daryl pops open the button of her jeans, and Beth is far from _okay_, though not in the way Maggie might mean. It's more difficult than one might think, to wiggle enough, to shuffle enough, without being noticed, but they manage, they do, and Beth has to smash her face into Daryl's neck to keep from making a sound when he finally works his fingers into her underwear. She's aware of how wet she is, but it's clear by Daryl's groan, low and long and deep, that he's both surprised and delighted by what he finds.

His fingers are rough, but it's a good kind of rough. They glide through the river of wet between her legs, grazing her lips without parting her, not yet. She breathes hot against Daryl's neck, turning her face just a bit so that she can let her mouth fall open, let her lips move silently over Daryl's throat. There's no way they should be doing this but it's happening just the same, and she's already too far gone from the first stroke of his finger to stop now.

Daryl's chest rumbles again, a sound too low to hear, but one she feels rolling right on through into her body and it makes her shiver.

"Do you think she's cold?"

"She's fine, Maggie. She looks pretty cozy under that blanket. _With Daryl_."

"But she's shivering, Glenn, look—"

"Maggie..."

Maggie needs to _shut up, _but Beth isn't going to say that. But then there's a _thump_ and the weight of something landing on them, and she realizes Maggie has thrown another blanket over them, that it's hiding her face just enough that she can drag her tongue over Daryl's throat, taste the earthy salt of his skin without being caught, and maybe she isn't all that worried about Maggie anymore.

She thinks Daryl's face must be hidden now, too, or hidden enough, because he speaks. Low and gravelly as his fingers dip into her folds. "_Fuck, _Beth..."

Beth can't speak, because she's afraid to start making sounds, lest she become completely incapable of controlling them. She's having enough trouble breathing, and all he's doing, all he's done so far is get his fingers good and slick, barely touching her at all. But he's _going to, _and the anticipation is killing her.

He touches her clit with nothing more than a breath of pressure, and if not for his other hand gripping her hip, she might leap out of his arms altogether. Instead, since she's trapped there, Beth sinks her teeth into Daryl's collar bone. It makes him buck his hips a little and drives his fingers harder against her, the rough pads striking her clit not exactly the way she wants, but enough to shoot shivers of pleasure up through her belly.

His next touch is anything but accidental as he sweeps his thumb around her clit in a tight circle, just the right pressure to pull another whimper out of her at how _good_ it feels, and her whole body's on fire and he's barely begun. He keeps making those slick little circles, pressing a little harder each time in just the right place and _ohhh,_Beth wants nothing more than to chase his touches, roll her hips into his knuckles for more friction, but she can't, not with his iron grip on her hip holding her still. Not at all without getting caught.

He's teasing her, she knows it, and the only part that makes it okay is that she knows he's as desperate as she is. Which is what makes it an easy decision to drag his zipper down and work her hand inside the opening of his jeans. It's a tight fit. A difficult angle. But she gets her fingers in, wraps them around the base of his cock, and _squeezes. _

This time it's Daryl's turn to whimper. Beth has been thankful before that Daryl's parents neglected to have their son circumcised, and she's thankful now. All it takes is a tight squeeze, a turn of her wrist and his foreskin just _glides _and Daryl lets out a sound like gravel covered in molasses. The movements of his thumb against her falter for a moment and his breath comes in panting little spurts.

He recovers quickly, though Beth feels him shuddering beneath her as she strokes him, even when he starts back up with his thumb. She clenches her muscles around nothing, tight, tighter as the motion of Daryl's thumb stokes the fire, makes her tremble. And it's good, it's more than good, but she _needs _him inside her and he knows, can feel the way she tightens, can hear the edge of desperation to the noises she can't stop making.

But he's not done teasing, and when she feels the brush of his fingertips, he's only gliding them along her folds, slick and feather-light and maddening and it feels like he's everywhere at once yet nowhere at all.

"Now what?" Glenn's voice breaks into her hazy bliss.

Daryl's fingers circle at her entrance and Beth clenches again, squeezes his cock tighter and feels his breath hot and slightly ragged in her ear. She whimpers, can't help it, it's either that or she moans like she wants to, like the one she can feel building in her belly, eager to escape.

"I hope she isn't having a nightmare," says Maggie.

Daryl pushes two fingers inside and Beth _does_ moan, muffling it as best she can into his throat, but it's _loud_ and it's _obvious_ and Daryl's rumbling with laughter, she can feel it against her, can feel it in his cock and in the breath rolling over her cheek.

Glenn clears his throat. "I—I don't think she's having a nightmare, Maggie."

He _knows. _Good lord, Glenn knows, but Daryl's thumb keeps turning those slick, agonizing circles, fingers pumping slowly, pressing each time into that spot inside sure to drive her over the edge, and Beth does. Not. Care.

"She never makes noises in her sleep unless she's having a bad dream." The concern is evident in Maggie's voice. "I better wake her—"

"Maggie." Glenn doesn't often use his in-charge tone with Maggie, but he's using it now. "Just...let it go. She'll be fine. Daryl's got it under control."

There's a lilt of humour in that last statement, and Beth just _knows_ they're gonna hear about this later. It's worth it.

"Daryl? What's Daryl got to do with anything?"

_Everything,_ Beth thinks, as her breath catches and holds in her chest. She can hear Maggie and Glenn's conversation carry on, but she tunes them out. The only thing she wants to hear right now are the little noises Daryl makes, noises he's struggling to control as much as she is. He's so hot and hard in her hand and she's quickly falling apart around the motions of his thumb and fingers.

"_Daryl..."_

He bucks his into her hand and swears too loudly, like he's beyond caring, too. The grip on her hip slackens just enough and she arches against him, drives his fingers deeper, his thumb harder onto her clit. And she's close, she's _so close_, and Daryl's shuddering beneath her, face buried in her hair as he comes, spilling hot and wet all over her hand. Beth rolls her hips, grips his wrist with her other hand to keep him there, and then she's coming, too, _so hard _she has barely enough awareness left to stifle her noises in Daryl's sweaty neck.

She's still shaking when Maggie tugs at her shoulder and pulls at the blankets. "Beth!"

Beth can imagine how she looks right now. How they both look as they lift their heads to stare at Maggie. It's hot beneath the blankets and the aftershocks are still rolling through her. Sweat plasters her hair to her forehead and she knows her cheeks are flushed, eyes glassy, pupils blown. She and Daryl made love in front of a mirror once, so Beth _knows_ what she looks like right now, knows what Daryl looks like without having to turn to see him, and how Maggie doesn't get it immediately would've been hilarious if she wasn't intruding on what promised to be some serious post-coital bliss.

Glenn sighs. "_Maggie..."_

Daryl extracts his hand from her to secure the inner blanket more tightly around them. Maggie's eyes are wide but it's clear the look is still one of concern, like she still thinks she's just saved Beth from a terrible nightmare and is just waiting for Beth to burst into tears and launch herself into Maggie's waiting arms.

So it's that not-quite-good part of Beth which secretly enjoys the way Maggie's face falls when Beth sighs and says, "_What_, Maggie?"

Maggie swallows, and her forehead furrows in confusion. "I thought you were having a bad dream…"

"You don't say," Beth says, leaning back into Daryl's chest. "Were you having one, too, Daryl?"

Glenn bursts out laughing, and Daryl hides his face into the crook of her neck and shakes silently. And Maggie, oh, Maggie, bless her sweet clueless heart, _still_ doesn't get it.

"I'm fine, Maggie," Beth says, absolutely _not_ reaching out of the blankets to take Maggie's hand where it hovers, waiting for a squeeze. "Thanks for looking out for me, but, I'm _good. _Right, Daryl?_"_

Daryl clears his throat and makes a noise like something between a chuckle and what she imagines choking on a piece of steak might sound like. "Yeah. Yeah, you're good."

"O-okay," Maggie says, looking small as she retreats back to Glenn's side. "I'm sorry I woke you, Beth."

Because Beth is still mostly a good person, she relents and gives Maggie a genuine smile. She loves her sister, she does, even if she's going to have to have a very interesting conversation with her once they're out of this truck. Maggie smiles back, exhales a relieved little sigh, and Beth curls back into Daryl, more than ready for an actual nap. It doesn't take long for either one of them to drift off to sleep.

xxx

Daryl's hard again when the truck rumbles to a stop sometime later, jolting the two of them awake, and it's fortunate he likes his jeans as loose as he does, because he's able to hide it as they pile out of the vehicle onto a deserted road. He leans against the truck and pulls her back with him, fingers slipping through the belt loops of her jeans. "Let's get outta here for a while."

"Oh god yes," says Beth, pressing back a little, just enough to feel him there, hard for her.

He shoulders his crossbow and grunts something to Rick about going hunting, and Rick glances at the two of them with a little smirk and wishes them good luck. They almost make it away, but no, Beth feels a tug at her hand and there's Maggie, Glenn not far behind.

"Where are you going?"

"Hunting," Beth says, slowly, refusing to meet Glenn's amused eyes over Maggie's shoulder. "With Daryl."

"Beth, honey," says Maggie, in that patented big sister patronizing tone of voice that honestly got old even before the world ended. "Daryl doesn't need your help hunting. Stay here where I can keep an eye on you."

"She's a good shot," Daryl pipes up from behind her, fingertips digging into the small of her back. "Knows her way around my crossbow."

Maggie doesn't look convinced, exactly, but plasters on the smile that goes along with the big sister voice. "Well, I'd like to see that!"

Beth sighs and glances back at Daryl, who's smirking so hard at his own cleverness right now she has to fight the desire to kiss it right off his face. Maggie still looks like she's planning on tagging along when Beth turns back around, though, so Beth moves up close and sets both her hands on Maggie's shoulders.

"Maggie."

Maggie blinks. "Yeah, Beth?"

"Daryl and I are going to go have sex right now," she says, slowly, lowly, but not so quietly that Glenn doesn't hear. "So unless you want to watch _that_, can you _please_ just leave me alone?"

Maggie's blinking rapidly, clearly struggling to process Beth's words. "You—Daryl—_what—?—_Beth!"

Maggie is still stammering when Beth and Daryl make a quick escape into the trees to the sound of Glenn's laughter.

They haven't gone very far away from the group, just far enough for their voices not to carry, when Daryl pushes her up against a tree and kisses her breathless. There's little finesse to it, all clacking teeth and thrusting tongues but Beth is past the point of caring. She pulls at his belt and he pulls at her jeans and when they're both naked from the waist down, Daryl sits back into the soft leaves beneath the tree and pulls Beth into his lap.

Their frantic rush slows right down as Beth arches up to sink down on him, gasping at the feel of him filling her. Daryl's hands grip her waist and Beth links hers behind his neck, and their foreheads meet when he's fully inside, shared moans of pleasure mingling in the air between them.

"Love you," he says, in a rumbling voice that vibrates right up inside her.

"Love you," Beth echoes as she starts to rock her hips slowly, grinding down on him, letting him hold her up so she can lean back into it, feel him the way she likes.

She's so close already and she doesn't think Daryl will last long either. He feels so good inside her she doesn't think she'll need anything more than this to send her over, and already her muscles are fluttering, her belly's burning with icy heat she can feel all the way down to her toes. Daryl's fingers dig into her waist and he's barely breathing as he pulls her down onto him again and again while she rolls her hips, digs into the rhythm, chases the flutters of pleasure swiftly building between them until it breaks, and she moans her pleasure, loud and free as her orgasm tears through her. She's still coming when she hears Daryl's raspy groan, feels him shudder beneath her, feels it inside as he empties everything into her.

She collapses into his arms and he plants his face into her shoulder, and they stay there for longer than they really should, just breathing it all in, the woods, each other, the scent of their lovemaking still thick in the air.

After a bit, Daryl snorts and nibbles at her neck. "Think Maggie's figured it out, yet?"

"Maybe," Beth says, sitting up to look at him, a little jolt of heat flaring again in her belly when she takes in his flushed face, lazy smile, still-glassy eyes. "We should get back."

She starts to move off him, but his hands find her waist and he pulls her back down, and she can feel him growing hard again, still buried deep inside her.

"Soon," he says, tilting his hips, pressing in until she moans. "Soon."

Beth laughs and squeezes her muscles around him until he moans, too, and he's fully hard now and staying right there seems like an awfully good idea. "Alright. Soon."

xxx

Admittedly, it's a little past _soon_ when she and Daryl get back, but they did manage to catch something for supper, so there's that at least. Rick blinks at the presence of the deer across Daryl's shoulders, clearly having not expected any sort of hunting whatsoever. Several faces send them knowing looks as they settle into camp, but it's the one face staring at her from across the fire with wide, still-startled eyes that brings a smile to Beth's face.

Beth leaves Daryl to his deer and steps up to the fire. Maggie leaves Glenn's side to approach her, moving cautiously now like she's afraid Beth is going to level her with yet another bombshell. "What took you so long?"

Beth sighs, lets a giggle out and shakes her head. "If I have to explain that to you, Maggie, then you and Glenn have been doing this wrong for _years_."

Maggie doesn't blink, but her mouth drops open in shock. "You mean—_really?"_

"Yes, _really_," says Beth, taking her sister's hands. "Maggie. It's okay. It's good. He—he makes me happy, Maggie."

Maggie still looks uncertain, but Beth understands. Honestly, she's surprised the others haven't had more trouble wrapping their brains around the thought of her and Daryl, and Maggie's uncertainty is not unexpected.

But at last, Maggie smiles, and it's honest and wide and reaches right up to her eyes. "Then I'm happy for you, Beth. For both of you."

Beth and Maggie rejoin Glenn by the fire, and Beth settles in to enjoy some sister time, now that she's been able to get some Beth and Daryl time. And it's _nice_. It's so good to be back with her family, and when Maggie jokingly scolds Beth for being so sneaky about what's going on with Daryl, all Beth can do is laugh and hug her sister tight.

xxx


End file.
